3/13/18 Tuesday - the forecast here was all day rain which it did last night, poured and blew hard. Amazingly when we rolled out the sun and blue sky appeared and for the most part all day long the bad weather held off. Today we explored the northern territory of the redwood forest. The first part of the Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park had a very nice paved and wide road through a grove of redwood trees. As you will see the excursion for the day was not all paved.

        Cool bridge along the way with a pair of golden bears at either end over the Klamath River.

                                                 Tourist stuff as well on the route.

                                  A view from our lunch spot about 800 feet above the ocean.

                                                       Finally made it to the park.

                                              This tree is 1500+ years old and now 300 feet tall!

 The bark of the redwood is 6" to 12" thick which protects the core of the tree. Also the tree bark has tannin, which resits fire and bugs and is a prime reason that they live to a ripe old age. The total population of redwoods are contained in 400,000 acres no more then 20 miles inland from the Pacific coast.

                                 The pictures just can't give the a feel for the size of these trees.

Of course what would be a trip to a new area be without a dirt road which was very wet, in fact many of the small streams were over their banks. Literally the dirt road squeezed by trees which made the drive even more of a challenge not to mention huge mud holes, steep drops offs and two way traffic. Although, I didn't tell Wendy at the time, the truck slide sideways towards a pretty steep drop off as she was walking ahead to take a picture of the truck traversing the redwoods. Yikes!

This fallen tree was about 10' in diameter.

 The blur in blue is Wendy at the end of the fallen redwood. Gives some idea how tall these trees are.

Great day!